Out of an interest of public service to the MUD community, I'm poking my head out of the gopher hole long enough to share the following:

Last Wednesday, I sent a posting to the moderated rec.arts.sf.written Usenet group promoting the games of jointhesaga.com.

The next day, players started complaining: They couldn't reach any of my websites. And when they did a whois check, the registration showed that my domain name had been suspended for spam and abuse by my registrar, GoDaddy.com.

No email. No phone call. No form of warning whatsoever. Not even a complaint from the Usenet group moderator to me.

So began my arduous trek.

I called GoDaddy.com long distance. Waited for 15 minutes. Finally got a customer service rep who told me I'd need to email the abuse department to find out what the problem was. Great!

So, I emailed the abuse department and found out that I'd been marked as a spammer because of a single post to that Usenet group. If I wanted to dispute the complaint, I could pay $29 to unlock the domain once I got proof I didn't do anything wrong. If I wanted to swear up and down I'd never spam again, I could pay $100 and get the domain unlocked.

Naturally, I was livid. I've made Usenet postings about these games for about six years and I've *never* had a complaint that wasn't handled between me and the moderator. If it's against posting rules, I have no problem with ceasing and desisting. But I never got that chance, and GoDaddy never contacted me before acting - talk about presumed guilt.

GoDaddy claimed they'd tried to contact me, using a defunct administrative email address. But my account information on the GoDaddy website (which I assume they must use to sell to telemarketers and spam e-mailers, since they didn't use it to contact me) included current email addresses, home phone number and a mailing address.

This made me absolutely furious. I don't even host my sites on GoDaddy.com. They just held the registration for jointhesaga.com, which was redirected to the name servers at RPG Works. I didn't send any e-mail via GoDaddy's servers. As far as I know, they've got ZERO jurisdiction over Usenet management. I really, really, really wanted to fight this. But, as I've just spent A LOT of money on print advertising for the games, I can ill afford to leave the address in dispute.

So, I sent an email back, calling GoDaddy.com extortionists and incompetents, informed them they could take the $100, but I'd be taking my business elsewhere immediately thereafter. I also notified the folks at RPG Works, as well as all my players - and this led to some angry but well-written letters from supporters who were prepared to yank their business from GoDaddy.com.

This yielded a response that if I didn't like their terms or couldn't comply with their terms, then they'd happily accept $29 to unlock the domain so I could change registrars.

I told them: Take the money. I'll be on my way. So, they did. I'm now in the process of moving jointhesaga.com to Register.com. It's much more expensive than GoDaddy.com, but in my experience, Register.com doesn't stab good customers in the back to make an extra buck, which is all this maneuver reeked of. GoDaddy's definition of "spam" is so broad that just about anything qualifies, and they act so rashly, without anything approaching due process or even simple manners, that you're not treated like a customer: You're treated like a criminal.

Now that this process has started, I've demanded a pro-rated refund on jointhesaga.com's registration (I'd paid through 2007), as well as six other domain names I'm cancelling with GoDaddy.com. If they agree, I should end up with more than $100 back in my accounts, which will cover the expense of paying their stupid penalty and transferring the domain. And they lose a loyal customer - all over one complaint about one email to one moderated Usenet group, because they were too damned lazy to pick up a phone.

If you registered with GoDaddy.com, think twice about staying with them. They use their "noble" anti-spam policies to make money on the back end. Most people probably just suck it up and pay without complaining and don't have the friends I do who can complain even louder and more convincingly. Don't let them make *you* a victim.

If you were thinking about GoDaddy.com, think again! They're nothing, in my opinion, but a bunch of crooks.

I hope you are able to broadcast this to a wider audience as that sort of treatment is just appalling. Good luck in your future endeavours.

ACK. Thanks for the warning about this. I was considering a move to GoDaddy because my current registrar went IE-only for their domain maintenance system and also began selling email addresses to spammers. But they've never had the gall to pull something like this.

In defense of GoDaddy (erk), ignoring spam complaints can be very costly, with some blocklists' policies being to block regions of IPs instead of singular spamming IPs*, and so it's often a better policy to have a knee-jerk about this.

Additionally, the rasfw charter doesn't explicitly allow advertising - but then, nor does it explicitly disallow it. I think, however, that the default these days is definitely "do not advertise".

That said, it's moderated, and if the moderator allowed (and has a history of allowing) said post, then it's kosher in my view.

Which leads me to the conclusion:

GoDaddy's customer support sucked rotten eggs through a pair of old socks but, as I read it, their suspension and reactivation policies are downright extortion. After reading this, especially from a regular as respected as Brody, I'm not going anywhere near them, and I will advise anyone else I meet not to, as well. That's just seriously bad.


*and rightly so - a particularly devious host could go "oops, swapped this blocked customer's IP with a previously unblocked customer's IP and whoops again! Innocent customer singled out by spam list. Bad blocklist! Evil blocklist!

Yes, this has happened. Lots.

Sorry to hear about your experience, Brody!

To speak in support of your alternate registrar choice: I have used Register.com for several years now to manage several domains, and can speak well of them from my experience. I don't think their price is high...rather I think it is *sustainable*--they also provide DNS services so you don't have to arrange for them separately from an ISP for an additional charge; your A pointers and CNAMES can be manipulated through their web-based interface (although I had to ask my ISP to provide reverses, at least on one subnet I manage.)

Their customer service, which I've only had to call twice in about five years, has always managed to answer my question or fix the issue in one phone call.

[Edited for typo]

I've used Verio.com on a few occasions and they seem to be a very decent registrar.

I've always had good luck with registerfly.com they are cheap ($9.99 a year) and they provide free dns with a webbased control panel and an ad-free webhosting account though it is only like 5 megs.

Wish I had known of your plight sooner.  I enjoy the inexpensive and customer friendly services of Idotz.net.  All my domains go through them.

Thank you for this great community service.  Though, do they have a libel suit or at least a defamation case now for what you posted here?

If he were lying they would. Since he most likely is not, they do not.

Truth is the ultimate defense to defamation.

I have a journalism minor and it is "Truth is the ultimate defense against Libel."  I swear I read that they could still try Brody in civil court if they can prove he cost them business for what he is posting here.

I am aware of your work. When you say they libelled you, was it publicly? I would like to see what they said. It be a good laugh because most of us know you are not a spammer.

You may be right, though I think only government/public officials can not sue for libel. Feel free to correct me. I sold my journalism book to pay a bill else I would refer to it.

Their motto just happens to be, "We Own You!"

Appalling treatment by GoDaddy.com, I certainly agree... but just out of curiosity, does the rec.arts.sf.written newsgroup allow ads? I haven't visited the newsgroups in years. *nostalgic sigh*

They don't specifically allow them, nor do they specifically forbid them. Regardless, the newsgroup is *moderated*, and if a moderator finds an item objectionable, they reject it and bounce it back.

In any event, my days of sending *any* posts to Usenet are done. Far too much trouble given the minimal return for the effort.

Nope. A corporation is a legal "person." It can sue for libel.

Truth is the ultimate defense to defamation. It doesn't matter if you cost someone 50 billion in losses. If you are telling the truth, it is not libel.

Defending corporations everywhere (the company I work for actually hosts verio.net - just a side note), I'd have to just let you know that tech support and the abuse department are always under constant siege - tech support bombarded by angry customers and idiots, and abuse hammered by ****ers trying to send 10k emails/hour or whatever.

For every 1 innocent that is inconvenienced (face it, your MUD address bouncing is not the end of the world), the abuse department has stopped at least 100 actual spammers.

Sure, I agree that it shouldn't have happened, theoretically - but godaddy is not out there monitoring your posts on usenet. Someone on Usenet complained to godaddy about your post, and they, while not reacting professionally, did react practically. Your 6 domains, at the rate godaddy charges, won't be a life or death loss/gain for them. However, if a valid complaint is overlooked, they could lose their uplink, which would mean an instant end to their business.

And this is why tech support hates you ;p

My website being down for six days means access difficulty for three games - and it costs me money. It's not the end of the world, but it's a huge pain in the ass without any due diligence on their part.

Had they tried to reach me via the correct email address or my home phone and failed to get me, I'd have no room to complain. My problem is they acted quickly, based on a single complaint without talking to me first, and then tried to extort me.

For the record, they relented, which suggests I was right.

And I'm not critizing your reaction, just trying to point out some factors one could consider for situations like this.

Mebbe I'm just a little annoyed that some guy talked my ear off for at least an hour today because the guy we hired a week ago didn't check the time that was requested for this customer's servers to be rebooted - no harm done, just wasn't done exactly when he wanted.

And plenty of "HELP FIX MY EMAIL!!!11"

To which my response would be, if I had a choice in the matter "FIX YOUR OWN EMAIL FATSO."

I think it is extremely irresponsible to make apologies and excuses for an absolutely absurd reaction by GoDaddy.com, and their complete failure to even give their customer a CHANCE to explain the situation.

People online find it far too convenient and entertaining to be contrary just for the sake of being contrary.

GoDaddy.com was 100% wrong here, period. There's no "other side" of the issue. There's no "maybe they overreacted."

They were wrong. Their actions were disgusting.

If you don't take care of your customers, you don't have a business. That "uplink" does you no good if you have no customers.

Furthermore, their "uplink" is not in jeopardy by not squelching the domain names of spammers.

At which point, you would be out of a job. This is a common attitude among tech-support people, and is one of the primary reasons customers have so many complaints against them.

A tech-support person at the company I work for who had this kind of attitude would find himself out of work quickly.

Sure, the average consumer has little to no clue about the process, that's why tech-support roles exist.

Well said Rhuarc.

It is amazing that in this day (when there are concerns about so many companies outsourcing tech support and other such jobs) that people would COMPLAIN about having to *gasp* do what they are hired to do.

Of course most people who call tech support are clueless- that's why the company is paying all those folks to work tech support.

The real problem is that most of the people WORKING tech support are themselves clueless, and are unable to resolve any situation that is even slightly complex.

It's also a pretty difficult time finding someone who can relate both with a computer and with a human. It takes a special person to be able to do both effectively. I've seen both extremes; people who are great with the computer, but are frustrated with ignorant people, or people that love helping people, but end up not having the skills to do so. I dunno.

Maybe once we have computers for a generation or two they'll be easy enough for most people-persons to understand.

Actually, it's my job to support server administrators.  When these alleged administrators, many who make a considerable profit from their businesses, rely on me to fix the problems that they create for their own clients due to ignorance, this is annoying.  I don't mind fixing a server.  What I do mind is when someone who calls himself a LINUX GURU!!11 calls in and whines for half an hour about how one of his clients cannot connect to his SMTP server - because he changed iptables without knowing what the #### he was doing.

And it's not that I mind doing that - I love simple questions, everyone does.  But to be berated for half an hour by a simpleton who can't figure out how to use google or better yet, not f*ck his own server up, is kind of ridiculous.  Even with all that, I've never sent a customer away unsatisfied.

As for saying that GoDaddy's actions were "disgusting", I can only laugh at that.  I'm sure they followed their TOS, in which case while it might be inconvenient for you, they were still following the letter of the law, so to speak.

Edit: Whoa - the curse filter catches h.ell, but not some other words...

Do you work for GoDaddy.com or hold stock in the company? The degree of apologizing for them is amazing.

The "Almighty TOS" does not make all these right.

Following the TOS does not excuse extreme knee jerk reactions nor does it excuse a total failure to notify the customer of a complaint and potential service stoppage.

Hear, Hear!, Threshold.

Ok, so the TOS were followed by the GoDaddy.com staff?

Yeah, like that holds water. Obviously, someone drafted up the most ridiculous terms of service I've heard of. And whoever that person at GoDaddy was IS responsible for that terrible chain of events, if their representatives were indeed following the letter of their law.

If anything, that would make them even more responsible. Sure, some idiot in their customer service department who was annoyed that day is one thing. But actually doing that to a loyal customer because these people were following company guidelines is even more outrageous.

Bottom line? They are running a bad business and there are better alternatives out there.

You pay for what you get.

That is a good point.

If it is their POLICY to make knee jerk reactions and cut off customers' access without notice, that is even worse than if some random nimrod did it on his own.

I don't think register.com would be a very good replacement, I've heard of lots of complaints about them trying to overcharge, or asking for their fees too soon. They also allow expired domains go too quickly. They let some squatter take over theunderdogs.org because they didn't email its webmaster about it.

Try another registrar maybe?

About godaddy: Read before you sign anything - because otherwise, you don't have any right to complain. "GOD THEY DID WHAT THAT PAPER I SIGNED SAID THEY COULD DO OMG HOW UNFAIR AND THEY ARE NOW A TERRIBLE COMPANY"

I have a domain or two on godadday, and they ****ed up my passwords in a really wierd way a couple of times, which sucks. I don't use them anymore, obviously.

I agree. Reading the TOS is critical. I'll repeat, just in case it hasn't been clear: I have no qualms with GoDaddy.com enforcing its terms of service. But the terms of service indicate they'll do all they can to contact the domain holder before taking extreme action like redirecting the DNS. In my case, they didn't do all they could. They took one complaint, tried reaching me via e-mail, and within hours of receiving the complaint and not reaching me - redirected the DNS.

Had they sent email to the valid address in my account and I ignored it, or had they tried to call me at home and failed to reach me, then I couldn't fault them for enforcing the TOS. They'd also be within their rights to tell me to take a long walk off a short pier for complaining.

But, in this case, they dropped the ball, they screwed up, and they're trying to make good on it, to their credit.